Give Microsoft and Google a Break
Everyone Loses Talent to a Higher Bidder
Why Do We Work?
There’s an old adage among Generation X university graduates in Kenya that you planned your career around Kenya Airways, Barclays Bank and East African Breweries (EABL). A first job at the brewer would lead to a mid-management role at the bank, and senior retirement job at the airline — or vice versa. The three companies dominated the prestige and profits in the decade leading to the year 2000 hence becoming highly coveted employers.
Fast forward to 2010, Safaricom, Equity Bank and KCB replaced KQ, EABL and Barclays Bank as the top profit earners in Kenya. Brighter Monday, an online East Africa job platform did a survey in 2018 on best companies to work for in Kenya and Safaricom topped the list. A similar survey conducted in 2019 placed Safaricom, EABL and KCB as the most coveted employers in Kenya. This points to one thing — most folks will choose a job because of money.
The Despise of the Outsider
In 2017, Safaricom — the largest company by valuation in East and Central Africa setup Safaricom Alpha to spearhead innovation within the company. Majority of employees in the innovation unit were drawn from startups in the country and salaries offers were much better than in the upstart companies. When this happened, no one raise a concern that Safaricom is draining talent from startups. Other companies followed suit — I&M Bank setup their in house innovation department known as iCube that drew employees mostly from startups and offered better salaries. Equity Bank setup an innovation subsidiary known as Azenia and it too drained talent from startups with comparable or slightly better salaries.
All the silence on local major companies draining talent from startups only has one interpretation — the loathe of foreign companies. Microsoft just setup a developer center in Kenya and Google and Visa have announced intentions of settings up developer centers in Kenya. Startups by very nature of having lower salaries will always lose talent to large companies whether foreign or local. The angst directed to Microsoft, Google and Visa is simply a colonial hangover that hates anything foreign and white.
You’d recall that white founded startups in Kenya face the same faux-rage. Complaints on most capital going to startup founded by white foreigner aren’t false but misplaced. Most capital to startups in Kenya come from Europe and US, it is only natural that folks who already have ties networks in US and Europe find it easier to raise capital. It’s similar to someone born in an entrepreneurial family in Central Kenya finding it easier to get capital than a young man born in Kapenguria.
If a VC in Silicon Valley requested for meeting with a founder in Kenya to take place in the US, a European or America passport holder would hop on a plane the next day and attend the meeting while a Kenya passport holder would still be held up at the Embassy waiting for a visa one month down. These are additional factors that make it easy for European and American founders to get funding. The faux-rage should be directed to the government for not making it easy to travel and raise capital.
What Can Be Done?
The perceived concern on tech giants draining talent from startups is a classical economics problem of supply and demand. It would seem there’s a limited supply of good tech talent in Kenya and a high demand orchestrated by large companies entering the market. The best means is to increase the supply of tech talent. Universities, technical schools, coding schools are allies in increasing the talent pool. The government can chip in too by increasing the training slots for technical courses. At the end, whoever has the most money will most likely have the best talent.
